together
by welcometonerdworld
Summary: Marauders and Lily drabble: In which Lily discovers that she doesn't really know them at all. Cover art by anxiouspineapples.


Lily Evans thought she knew the Marauders well enough.

She thought that she knew all there was to know.

That they were infuriating.

That they could be bullies.

But the thing is, Lily Evans knew something else too: the Marauders were so close that they could have been brothers.

And she really didn't understand that at all.

* * *

After all, how could someone like Remus Lupin possibly be friends with the three other tossers?

Remus Lupin is like Lily Evans. And Lily Evans could never, ever, be friends with the Marauders.

She gets it in fifth year, though. Remus Lupin, one of the four, has become a Prefect.

Like Lily, Remus is smart, hard-working, and kind.

So it really doesn't surprise anyone when they become friends.

And later, when she isn't friends with Severus any more, (and Merlin, that hurts every time she even thinks about it) Remus is the one that's there for her.

Eventually, she figures out that Severus was right.

Remus Lupin is indeed a werewolf.

She doesn't think any less of him though. Not like Severus would.

Anyway, a Mudblood and a Werewolf - how different are they, really?

They're in the same boat. Together.

* * *

In sixth year, she gets to know Sirius Black.

This surprises everyone.

Lily Evans, perfect Prefect, friends with Sirius Black, Trouble with a capital T?

It was almost preposterous.

It began when she found a broken boy, with rolling tears streaming, and a torn letter crunched into a fist.

Sirius Black was a broken boy.

Broken by rejection, as Lily had been.

Broken by his parents and his brother, where Lily was broken by her sister and her best friend.

So she pulls him up, tells him (ridiculously enough) that everything's going to be okay. He'll get through this.

And Lily Evans helps Sirius Black, as he helps her.

They too, are in the same boat. Together.

* * *

Lily Evans doesn't have a lot in common with Peter Pettigrew.

He's nice enough, she supposes, not horrible like she used to think all the Marauders were.

She's friends with him.

She helps him with his homework and he helps her with her troubles. He gives very good advice, that Peter Pettigrew.

He's smarter than she thought. She'll give him that.

And there's another thing: Peter Pettigrew isn't given credit where it's due.

People underestimate him, and to Lily Evans, the angry feelings are understood.

(Although, looking back, Lily might just have underestimated his angry feelings.)

Lily Evans was underestimated. For being a Muggleborn, for being a girl, for being a Gryffindor, the list was never ending.

She wanted justice, and so did he.

They're in the same boat, Lily and Peter. Together.

* * *

Throughout sixth year, James Potter is silent.

He's polite, and Merlin, it scares her every day, how much he's changed - does nobody else realise?

So in seventh year, when James Potter is given the title of Head Boy, and Lily Evans becomes Head Girl, it isn't too surprising when they finally become friends.

He's funnier than she thought.

She thought his jokes were stupid, but they're really quite intellectual.

She thought he didn't study, and she was wrong. So wrong.

He's loyal, almost too loyal - he became an Animagus for god's sake. "Stupid," she tells him, "So stupid." But there's still that tell-tale smile on her face, so she tells him then that she's proud of him, them, all of them.

The Marauders. Her boys. Her best friends. And mostly her brothers, too. (She laughs - they aren't just tossers. They're her tossers.)

But James is still different. Different from the others.

There's this fire, an inextinguishable fire, which blazes inside of him, that matches hers perfectly.

They'll fight, Lily Evans and James Potter. The muggleborn and the pureblood.

They'll fight for their love, and for their friends.

They'll fight for their beliefs, because they know that their fire must not - cannot - burn out.

They're in the same boat, even though they can be so different at times.

So they'll fight, Lily and James. Together.

* * *

And how it's changed. She really does understand now. The Marauders are family, not just friends.

Lily Evans is one of them.

They'll fight to the death, they're sure of it.

And they know that it will be okay, at least for a while, because they've got each other, and they're in the same boat. All of them. Together.


End file.
